vegan beauty and lifestyle

Lifestyle

There’s no denying it – Christmas is a fundamentally consumerist event, which sees us spending hundreds of pounds on festive food and gifts for our loved ones, the pressure to part with our cash starting as early as October. I’m not immune to the pull of capitalism, nor do I think it’s a bad thing to want to treat ourselves and others during the celebrations. There are dark sides to it, too, though – not everyone can afford to spend any money on gifts at all, and the excessive spending does feel somewhat grotesque with social issues such as homelessness and food poverty looming alongside it.

For many of us, having a festive drink (or three) is a big part of Christmas. Whether that’s a Snowball cocktail, a thimble of Baileys over ice, or a warming glass of mulled wine, alcoholic beverages are an enjoyable indulgence come the festive season, and something we shouldn’t miss out on just because we’re striving to lead a more compassionate lifestyle by being vegan.

There’s no doubt about it: Christmas can be a time of great waste. From making way too much food to giving unsuitable or unnecessary gifts, we can end up creating a lot of waste over the festive period, and it’s a crying shame. However, it doesn’t need to be this way, and in today’s post I’m going to go over some of the ways you can minimise your contribution to waste this year.

I can’t quite believe I’m sitting down to write my final Intentions post of 2016. I probably won’t do a full retrospective post about what the year was like for me but, to refer to it briefly, it’s been a mixed bags. Personally, I feel I have grown a lot and achieved several of my goals (especially regarding this blog!). However, on a larger scale, I have felt increasingly upset and hopeless about the state of the world, and that has been hard to shrug off.

Every so often, the question of whether or not it is ethically acceptable to buy from cruelty-free brands who are owned by parent companies who test on animals comes up in the community, causing a little chatter as we all try to define and articulate our views on the subject. It has come up most recently following beloved cruelty-free brand Too Faced’s acquisition by notorious baddies, Estée Lauder. I’ve really been intrigued reading everyone’s opinions on this complex issue and, while it’s far from being a hot take, I thought I’d add my own voice to the mix.

Winter might not officially start until December, but once mid-November has rolled around, it feels more like it than not. The crisp but relatively mild days of Autumn, with its rust-coloured leaves and collectable conkers, have made way for a biting chill and a grey breeze on the air. And, as gloomy as that might sound in comparison, I’m welcoming the change.

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Sometimes, a company might contact me to take part in a blogging campaign or share an offer through a post on (notso)quietgirl. Please know that I only ever express my own opinions and will do my best to always indicate when a post is sponsored or is a collaboration!